126 
The Barn Swallow 
time of the year within the borders of the United States. Although 
there is considerable variety in the plumage of these i 
Swallows, nearly all show more or less metallic luster ! 
in the feathers of the back, and all have pleasing 
voices, which sound more like rippling bird-laughter than an attempt 
at singing. All are strong and swift on wing but weak of feet; going 
to prove, as a wise man has expressed it, that their wings have been 
developed at the expense of their claws. When they wish to rest they | 
choose, therefore, some very slender perch, as a telegraph-wire. 
In a family noted as is this one for beauty and grace, our Barn 
Swallow is well able to hold his own ; and his chief mark of identity, the 
deeply forked, white-spotted tail, is so conspicuous, whether the bird is 
on the wing or at rest, that there should be no difficulty in recognizing | 
him. Then, again, as shown in the accompanying picture, these birds 
are almost always on the wing, now following some insect high in the ; 
air, now skimming low over the meadows with a motion peculiar to ■ 
themselves — a flight that resembles swimming or rowing in the air. The 
long wings are like oars, and the tail acts as a rudder, aiding the bird to 
make the quick turns its capture of agile insects render necessary. 
The Barn Swallow in summer lives in all parts of North America, 
including Alaska and Labrador, but it does not appear to be common 
in the South Atlantic or the Gulf States. The matter of nesting-site 
is of great importance when one is trying to account for the cause of 
any observable decrease in the number of these birds, and is searching 
for a remedy. What is necessary in order to make this Swallow feel 
at home? 
We associate the Swallow with comfortable old-fashioned barns, 
which had open rafters, doors that could not be shut tight, and windows 
with many panes lacking. Within such buildings, almost as easy to 
. get into and out of as were the caves and broken crags 
Ihe (jenius ot • u u — 
onies, while their cousins, the Cliff- Swallows, had quarters beneath the 
outside eaves, in a line of gourd-shaped tenements. 
In the mountainous West these birds still place their nests in crevices 
of rocky cliffs by rivers and lakes ; but such wild resorts are abandoned 
for the shelter of buildings as soon as the region begins to be civilized. 
The style of the cradle for the expected young is little changed by moving 
from the rock-cave to the barn. It is composed of pellets of mud well 
mixed with straw; and it may be stuck against the wall or a rafter 
like a bracket, or set flat on the level surface of a beam. In either case 
the cup-like interior is made soft and warm by a bed of feathers. 
Nowadays, however, in the more thickly settled and prosperous 
parts of the country, these loosely built old barns have given place to 
tightly constructed, neatly painted ones ; thus, as the new replaces the 
old in their haunts, many a pair of Swallows drop from their sky-high 
wooing to find closed doors and tight roofs staring them in the face. 
So they move on. Whither? Out to the frontiers or into the “back 
counties.” This accounts, in part, for what seems to be rather than is a 
Old Barns 
to which they resorted before barns were built, the 
Barn Swallows used to nest, sometimes in large col- 
